SDR receiver and computer

SDR receiver

• Model: SDRplay RSP2pro.
• Sampling rate up to 10 MHz, 14-bit ADC resolution.
• Acquisition over USB on a dedicated Linux computer.

An SDR (Software Defined Radio) receiver digitises the signal and processes it in software. In this project it replaces the whole analogue part of the SRT: mixers, local oscillator, intermediate-frequency amplifiers, filters and the A/D card. There is no receiver to build, but gain and filtering ahead of the SDR remain important.

Computer and data

• Dedicated PC running Linux (Ubuntu LTS).
• Acquisition software: GNU Radio, rtl_power, SdrSharp (Wine-compatible) or CygnusRFI.
• Analysis: Python 3 with NumPy, SciPy, Matplotlib and Astropy; Jupyter Notebook for interactive observations with students.
• Storage: external NAS with dedicated disks; datasets in open formats (HDF5, CSV) with astronomical metadata.
• Continuity: an uninterruptible power supply to protect instruments and data from surges and power cuts.

All the software is open-source and freely reproducible.